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Will another IWW branch beat Toronto in raising money for women and trans* people to travel to IWW events?

The Toronto IWW Fundraising and Literature Committee is issuing a challenge to other IWW branches: Beat us in fundraising for the Sato Fund. We will be having a fundraising event Labour Day weekend 2014 to raise money for women and trans IWW members to travel to IWW events.

We would like to encourage other branches to fundraise for the Sato Fund, so we challenge others to have fundraisers between now at September 30th, 2014. Email toronto@iww.org to let us know you are in the competition.

What is the Sato Fund?

The Sato Fund was established to memorialize FW Charlene “Charlie” Sato, an IWW member and activist who died in 1996 after a long battle with cancer. As a professor of pidgin and creole language studies at the University of Hawai’i, Charlie often was at the forefront of promoting the rights of aboriginal peoples to use their language in educational and public settings.

After her death, the IWW established the Sato Fund, which was originally intended to “help women with travel costs in order to attend the General Assembly”. The union is proud to continue with this tradition of promoting gender diversity throughout our major decision making and strategy building gatherings. This is accomplished by materially aiding fellow workers with their travel costs (including air/train/bus fare, as well as fuel costs) incurred in order to participate in these events. (More here.)